We’re getting close to the end of my blog. After today’s entry, I only have three left to write. After that, I’ll only blog anonymously or (more likely) not at all.This is part three of five in my "Programmer’s View of the Universe" series. I struggled for a while with how best to introduce the ideas in this installment, and ultimately opted for a short story.This is a science fiction short
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Over the holidays I read a neat book called Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely. The book is a fascinating glimpse into several bizarre and unfortunate bugs in our mental software. These bugs cause us to behave in weird but highly predictable ways in a bunch of everyday situations.For instance, one chapter explains why bringing an uglier version of
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So I’ve got all these fancy blog posts planned. More than planned, actually — they’re well underway. But it’s also been a busy couple of months, so nothing’s really ready yet.To make my schedule even worse, I kind of sort of got myself a little bit addicted to the writings of this one blogger. Normally I can’t frigging stand blogs, including my own. Everyone always asks me what blogs I read,
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Next week I am taking a trip to Venice for four nights and leaving the laptop at home. I’ve not written as many posts in the last few weeks because I have been busy working on a new project called Life in Leeds, and I launched it this week.
Impact of the recession
Since I am away on my holiday, I thought I would open up this post and I would like to know where you are going on holiday, how you have booked your holiday this year and has the recession impacted where you are travelling to.
Normal service will resume on my return.
This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants blog. Signup for the free Travel Newsletter or subscribe to the Travel RSS feed for regular updates like this.
Venice, my life in Leeds and recession impacting holidays
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This week I had the opportunity to interview John McEwan who is one of the two candidates for the role of chairman ABTA, the Travel association, an association that should be focusing more on the issues that affect travel consumers.
Why is holiday financial protection so confusing and what improvements are needed to make it more understandable for consumers so that we can make a more informed decision if the travel company fails or when booking our holiday?
In an ideal world there should be a common protection system for travel. And part of that would be for a single point of reference for consumers in the event of a business failure – this is a role that ABTA could potentially take on while the CAA continues to administer the business and financial end of the scheme.
What most people want to see is a universal protection scheme that goes beyond the traditional package market. That means a levy on all holiday elements – accommodation and flights. That way we could sweep away the confusion about what is and isn’t protected. Airlines have been against this and that is why the current inadequate system has remained in place.
I agree that it doesn’t do us any favours to have people referred to their credit card companies for refunds. There is a real fear in our industry that credit providers might not want to work with travel companies in the future if they are the ones taking on the risk all the time.
We don’t want the situation where people can’t pay for their travel by credit card, or are asked to pay a big fee for the privilege. This is another reason why sorting out the bonding issue must be a priority.
There are so many ways to book a holiday, and most consumers assume that they have been to a travel agent so it’s a package holiday that they have booked. So you think it’s the role of ABTA to ensure that their members spend time educating the consumer so that there are armed with the full facts before they book the holiday? I personally don’t think this happens.
ABTA certainly has a role when it comes to making sure travellers are fully informed and satisfied with their holiday purchase. Members must abide by a comprehensive Code of Conduct, which governs things such as booking conditions, communication and how complaints are handled as well as complying with relevant UK and EU legislation.
Historically the travel industry has never spoken about the issue of financial protection to consumers, because it was perceived as a negative thing to talk about businesses failing. But in recent months, big companies such as Thomson and Thomas Cook have been highlighting their ATOL bonding and the protection that offers.
Given the millions of holidays taken each year there is a tiny rate of complaint, which proves ABTA members are doing an excellent job on the whole. And the facts show that ABTA’s conduct committee is able to resolve the vast majority of issues to everyone’s satisfaction without the need for legal action.
Air Passenger Duty is a complete joke because there’s no proof that the millions generated is going towards helping the environment so what you think would be the perfect solution for the industry, consumers and the environment?
I don’t think people really have an issue with green taxation per se. The trouble with it is that there is no evidence that the money collected actually goes towards environmental issues. In fact, the Treasury has gone on record as saying it just goes into the general pot.
Nobody likes paying taxes, but consumers would accept it more readily if the money was ring-fenced and everyone could see where it was being spent – whether that was specific green projects or research on things such as cleaner fuels as you suggest.
The planned changes to APD, which will have a detrimental effect to some countries that really rely on tourism, show how the government doesn’t have a joined-up policy when it comes to travel and jobs.
It shows why the industry needs to speak with a united voice. Airlines, operators and agents are all against the way it is levied but the protests are very fragmented. Perhaps the ideal situation would be to link charges to load factors and incentivise airlines to operate cleaner, newer aircraft.
I was not aware that ABTA had ‘elections’ to elect its chairman. It will be a challenge because there’s so much to improve about the travel industry. What do you think are the biggest challenges ahead for the elected chairman?
ABTA current president Justin Fleming is now completing his three-year term in office and the decision has been taken to replace this role with an elected chairman, to increase transparency. So these elections are a historic first for the organisation. We’ve already touched on the major challenges for the chairman – APD and consumer protection are obviously the two hot topics.
ABTA is a very broad church so the new chairman has to embrace the whole of the industry to get it speaking with one voice, and not be divided down the historic lines of tour operators and travel agents.
ABTA really needs to start punching its weight in terms of lobbying – which will be in the interests of both travel companies and consumers. Inbound and outbound travel companies contribute a huge amount to the economy, employing hundreds of thousands of people in the UK.
I’ll be taking an interest in wider business issues too, such as red tape, law and taxation, so the sector goes from strength to strength. ABTA must have the ear of government when it comes to tourism and transport policy-making.
Thanks to John for taking the time to respond to my questions. If you have any questions that you would like to ask then please leave them in the comments section.
This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants blog. Signup for the free Travel Newsletter or subscribe to the Travel RSS feed for regular updates like this.
Q&A with John McEwan. Discussing the future of ABTA
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You want to feel like the travel agent wants your business and a rant received questioned the commitment and helpfulness of some travel agents. As the ranter said, you’re not asking for miracles, you just want the agent to give you the impression that they want to help you book your holiday.
You do not want to feel like you are an inconvenience.
Coming across as helpful
I have sometimes come across the same issue, but to be fair, it’s not an issue just associated with travel agents.
This weekend I took my sister to an Italian restaurant for lunch, the food was average, but what annoyed me more was the lack of customer friendliness by the staff. I’ve probably put a few people off going there because I ranted about them today at work.
Word of mouth is powerful
Travel companies have to realise that first impressions count.
Consumers have the tools to be able to share their experiences, and we can be nit-picky, and while their holiday might be fantastic, how the agents come across when booking is vital to the consumer’s impression of the company, and word of mouth is very powerful.
Interested to know of any negative experiences you have had with travel agents.
This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants blog. Signup for the free Travel Newsletter or subscribe to the Travel RSS feed for regular updates like this.
First impressions count when booking with a travel agent
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Booking your holiday online can sometimes be frustrating and time consuming if you are looking for something out of the ordinary. If you want to book a package holiday, 7 or 14 days, then the process of booking online can be a breeze when you decide on the destination.
Consumer requirements changing
Consumers have become more adventurous, or know the hotel and how and where they want to depart from. Some holidaymakers do not like staying in the same place and prefer a multi-centre holiday and this is when booking online becomes frustrating.
One reader ranted that he knew the Paris hotel that he wanted to take his partner to, and they wanted to travel on Eurostar, but could he find an online travel agency to meet his requirements, no. Quite rightly he wanted to book through a reputable bonded agency.
To be honest; he would have been quicker booking it himself.
More travel agencies need to change with the times
I think this is one of the things that frustrate me in that ABTA, CAA, tell us to book holidays through their members, but, they are not flexible enough to deal with consumer’s demands in 2009. Time has moved on, the number of people demanding simple holidays has reduced in the last four years.
I am interested to hear what frustrates you about booking your holiday online.
This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants blog. Signup for the free Travel Newsletter or subscribe to the Travel RSS feed for regular updates like this.
Lack of flexibility when booking holiday online
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Living near Bristol Airport I have a wide choice of cheap flights to European destinations from both Easyjet and Ryanair who both use the airport as a hub. Recently I had the opportunity to fly with both airlines within the space of a few days and decided to compare the experience.
Ryanair has a reputation for being the lowest of the low cost carriers albeit at the expense of the customer experience, while Easyjet appears to be the friendlier face of low cost travel. I decided to see if they lived up their reputations.
First the Online booking
Both carriers websites are easy to buy from on the face of it although I found all the flashing ads on the Ryanair website a little distracting. I was booking a return flight with Easyjet to Berlin with my daughter and what you see is pretty much what you get in terms of prices.
We were travelling light with only hand baggage but if you check in a suitcase with Easyjet it will cost you £16 for the round trip and if you don’t pay by the Electron Card (try to Co op or Halifax ) you’ll pay an extra £2.95. The final cost was £77 per person return to Berlin.
The Ryanair pricing felt less transparent and it was difficult to work out the final price until you got to the end of the purchase. The prices quoted include tax and at £30 for a return flight to Turin looked like a bargain, but soon the add-ons became apparent.
Forced to use the counter check-in
Although we were carrying mainly hand-luggage, the fact that we had some hold luggage meant that all passengers on the ticket were forced to use the counter check-in and pay an extra £20. Those with suitcases to check in had to pay £30 and the ski bag was a further £60. By now the £30 per person had doubled to £60.
Then there was the handling fee of £10 per person per return journey which is levied on all payments except those with an Electron cards. But even with all the add-ons Ryanair was cheaper at £60 per return flight to Turin compared with £77 with Easyjet for a return flight to Berlin – although neither exactly breaking the bank.
Online check-in
Using the online check-in with Easyjet everything went smoothly – put in your account details & print off the boarding card – that’s it.
With Ryanair it felt a bit like an ordeal. I called up my details, pressed the button to check in and the screen froze. As this was the day before we were due to fly and I was using the office printer as my home one was broken I was starting to feel stressed. I phoned my husband at his work to print out the boarding card but then a new problem presented itself.
At the time of booking, Ryanair only asks for the names of the passengers, but when you check in you need to give all the passport details. This involved calls home to get the necessary details before the boarding cards were finally printed off.
If I had been booking for a group of friends, I might not have had those passport details to hand. Why doesn’t Ryanair ask for them at the time of booking, when you have time to spare, rather than when you’re in a rush just before you travel?
The flight
The Easyjet flight from Bristol to Berlin was on time although on the way back was 15 mins late, due to confusion over a cello which had been booked with it’s own seat and caused some recounting of the passenger numbers. But at least the captain kept us informed of what was going on.
The crew were good humoured, jokingly asking if they could make us a nice cup of tea with their best Edinburgh water. They were helpful to a member of our group who had her leg in a brace and we were all put to the front of the queue although we had forgotten to request special assistance.
Record of being on time
Ryanair was also bang on time flying out of Bristol and on our return trip trip they announced ‘Another on time flight from Ryanair’ as we were 20 mins early, letting us know that Ryanair has the best record for being on time of all the low cost airlines.
The planes are designed for quick turnaround with no pockets on the back of the seats to gather rubbish and adverts on the overhead lockers, although I enjoyed reading the in flight magazine which was handed round during the flight.
The Verdict
Based on my experience, Ryanair lives up to the promises it makes of low fares and good record of flights being on time. However, Easyjet offered a better pre-flight customer experience with transparent pricing and easy booking and check-in on line.
All things being equal I’d choose Easyjet, although it’s amazing how tempting cheap flights can be.
The add-ons
In addition to the published fare, be aware that you may be stung for the following add-ons;
Easyjet
£16 per round trip check in a suitcase
£37 per round trip for skis/sports eqpt
£2.95 per transaction to pay with cards except Electron
Ryanair
£20 per person per round trip to check in at desk with hand luggage
£30 / £40 per bag per round trip to check in a suitcase with online checkin
£60 per bag per round trip to check in ski or sports equipment
£10 per person per round trip to pay with cards except Electron
An excellent in-depth travel guest post written by Heather Cowper who blogs at Heatheronhertravels.com and frequently takes advantage of cheap airfares from her home airport of Bristol.
This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants blog. Signup for the free Travel Newsletter or subscribe to the Travel RSS feed for regular updates like this.
Easyjet Vs Ryanair flight price comparison
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a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/06/19/article-1027593-015E1F6D00000578-888_468×463.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 468px; height: 463px;” src=”http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/06/19/article-1027593-015E1F6D00000578-888_468×463.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″ //abr /Poor little Tory MP (and former nurse) a href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IlwcTx9Q628/SDPgrPG_W4I/AAAAAAAAB0E/5RbbwS6BqCA/s400/nadine_dorries.gif”Nadine Dorries/a has been a href=”http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8063005.stm”bleating/a about the effect of the recent expenses fraud furore is having on the MPs themselves. They don’t like being tarred with the same brush as everyone else, and she’s worried that some might commit suicide.br /br /Let’s recap shall we?br /br /br /Over the years there have been a number of medical scandals (Bristol, Alder hey, Shipman, Stafford). Often MPs and ministers have been the first to leap onto the bandwagon, condemning everyone involved BEFORE all of the facts are known. There has then usually been a knee jerk reaction ‘to stop it ever happening again’ which has been invariably ill thought out or positively bad for medicine, research and the public. The Human Tissue Act and the introduction of a ‘license to practice’ are cases in point.br /br /Doctors have all been tarred with the same brush and some have cracked under the strain, given up jobs or left the country. Some have a href=”http://nhsblogdoc.blogspot.com/2008/04/doctors-who-commit-suicide.html=committed” suicide=”"committed suicide/a.br /br /Whilst Dr Rant has thus far declined to enter into the fray on the expenses scandal, preferring to sit back and smuggly watch the Schadenfreude unfold, the tempation to stick a pin the walking voodoo doll that is Nadine Dorries was just too great.br /br /However, I would like to offer a word of advice to Ms Dorries – Don’t expect much sympathy from your GP.div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/28089527-5539325684432039692?l=www.drrant.net’//div
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div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_srKLQ9PUso4/Sf6ojI3KFlI/AAAAAAAAAiY/euEf3DwJikg/s1600-h/Modernisation.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 320px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_srKLQ9PUso4/Sf6ojI3KFlI/AAAAAAAAAiY/euEf3DwJikg/s400/Modernisation.jpg” alt=”" id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5331884330480965202″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-style: italic;font-size:85%;” CfH trials it’s new portable communications system, yesterdaybr /br //span/divbr /1.span style=”font-weight: bold;”PBC/span is a href=”http://www.healthcarerepublic.com/news/GP/897913/GPs-backing-PBC-decline%20″dying/a on its feet. It has a much life in it as the a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vuW6tQ0218″parrot/a in Monty Python’s sketch. It will have even less when it is used by PCTs as a a href=”http://www.healthcarerepublic.com/news/GP/901427/PCT-funding-clawbacks-future-PBC-unclear”means of keeping their budgets secure/a, rather than as a means of improving services and making savings which could be redeployed.br /br /span style=”font-style: italic;”"Now Dr David Jenner, GMS contract lead at the NHS Alliance, has said he is ’seriously worried’ about the future of the initiative.br /’I've seen PCTs reclaiming all the savings made,’ he told last week’s London conference. ‘So the trust has gone and the incentives (to take part) are gone.’ Such clawbacks seem to be happening in many parts of the country, he said.”/spanbr /br /David Jenner is, or at least was, one of the a href=”http://www.drrant.net/2007/07/promised-land.html”enthusiasts/a for a href=”http://www.drrant.net/2007/11/practice-based-commisioning.html” PBC/a. If he’s giving up on it…br /br /2. span style=”font-weight: bold;”Choose and Book/span is the great success of the National Programme for IT according to a href=”http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm081104/debtext/81104-0001.htm”health minister Ben Bradshaw/a, and to CfH at their a href=”http://www.e-health-insider.com/comment_and_analysis/423/conferenced_in”conference/a in Harrogate last month. Lib Dem MP Mark Hunter has a a href=”http://www.markhunter.org.uk/news/000442/choose_and_book_expensive_unreliable_and_failing__mark_hunter_mp.html”rather better understanding /aof the reality. As he says,br /br /span style=”font-style: italic;”/spanblockquotespan style=”font-style: italic;font-size:130%;” “In November when I asked the Minister to review the system in light of the many complaints received he replied that it was ‘one of the great success stories of the national programme for IT’. If the Minister calls “choose and book” a success I’d hate to see what he considers to be a failure!/spanspan style=”font-size:130%;”"/span/blockquotebr /3. The span style=”font-weight: bold;”NHS a href=”http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4010198″/aPlan/span is coming to be seen as an utter failure as a href=”http://www.drrant.net/2009/04/nhs-plan-ten-years-on.html”Dr Rant/a said recently. Now the delivery of the APPG report is awaited. There’s a summary of the evidence it received a href=”http://www.healthcarerepublic.com/news/GP/901299/NHS-Plan-actually-”here/a. How will Dr Stoate allow his party to weasel their way out of their failures? Just how much “tweaking” will be necessary? As much tweaking as CfH will need if it is to avoid being ditched by the Tories?br /br /4. You just a href=”http://www.hsj.co.uk/news/workforce/latest-nhs-chief-departure-sparks-fears-of-diminishing-talent-pool/5000692.article”cannot get/a span style=”font-weight: bold;”Chief Execs /spanfor acute trusts these days can you? To paraphrase Lady Bracknell, to lose one CEO is bad enough, to lose two is careless. And to lose more than that is systematic failure of the kind only this government can manage. Dr Rant sympathises with Chief Execs- they a href=”http://www.hsj.co.uk/comment/opinion/jon-restell-on-a-raw-deal-for-nhs-managers/2007618.article%20″get the blame/a for everything, and now they a href=”http://www.hsj.co.uk/news/legal/rose-gibb-judgement-ends-era-of-pay-offs/5000912.article”don’t even get a pay out./abr /br /Richard Vize at HSJ is trying to a href=”http://www.hsj.co.uk/the-blame-game/5000646.blog”swing the blame pendulum/a back towards doctors and away from management. I can see why he’s trying this…but it rather illustrates that the culture in the NHS is not one of reflection and learning, but actually one of aggression, a href=”http://www.hsj.co.uk/news/workforce/bullying-the-corrosive-problem-the-nhs-must-address/5000577.article”bullying,/a a href=”http://www.hsj.co.uk/news/workforce/bullying-permeating-patient-care-warns-healthcare-commission/2007581.article”back stabbing/a and blame deflection.br /br /5. Will span style=”font-weight: bold;”Alan Johnson still be SOS for Health?/span Might he be called to a higher place? Of course, like the cabinet, we all still do have full confidence in Gordon Brown and his government. a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/02/hazel-blears-labour-gordon-brown”Mrs Blears/a the Labour’s Party’s problem is not that we don’t get the message- it’s that we hate the message, and most of the messengers, and we hate the fact that you think we’re dumb enough to accept your party’s combination of arrogance, mendacity and incompetence any longer.br /br /Jobbing Doctor comments on the a href=”http://thejobbingdoctor.blogspot.com/2009/05/fin-de-siecle-2.html”fin de siecle/a feel to current politics and Dr Rant is looking forward to the end of this particular government. Dr Rant hopes that Mr Lansley will be a high phosphate enema for the NHS getting rid of the policies and people who have failed it severely in the last twelve years.br /br /Never has so much money been a href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/Squandered-David-Craig/dp/1845298322″squandered/a by so many politicians and managers for so few health gains.div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/28089527-4602490181505048865?l=www.drrant.net’//div
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